Man faces charges in fatal boating accident

P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, May 4, 2006

A Seattle man faces a felony charge for a boating accident on Lake Washington last summer that left a 13-year-old girl dead.

Police say Charles Fraser Hall knew the running lights on his Mastercraft 20-foot ski boat weren't working July 19, when he was driving his four children and their friend, Jessica Elizabeth Benson, after 10 p.m. in the dark.

His boat crashed head-on into another watercraft, killing Benson and leaving one of his 6-year-old twins with a broken jaw. Two people on the other boat also were injured.

King County prosecutors said Hall, 44, was speeding and had a trace of alcohol in his system almost three hours after the crash. He is expected to answer to a charge of homicide by watercraft May 18 in King County Superior Court.